As a leader, it’s important to build strong professional relationships and have a team that is willing to go into battle for you. Alyssa Merwin, Vice President of Sales Solutions Americas at LinkedIn, shares her story on how her team and peers perceived her actions and dedication to success incorrectly. She outlines how she used this negative feedback to establish stronger connections with her colleagues, enabling her to be a more effective leader.

As the first sales person on the program, Alyssa and I also touch on some important topics around sales leadership, sales and marketing alignment, and the changing roles and responsibilities of sales. We also cover how to build a strong sales organization and predict whether marketing leaders or sales leaders will earn more in the future.

Ruth Rowan, CMO of Dimension Data, joins the show to share how she approaches digital transformation and embraces change. By clearly demonstrating the need for change and getting everyone onboard, Ruth has been able to minimize resistance and achieve organizational success much more quickly when implementing new processes and practices. Listen as Ruth shares how she landed in marketing, provides her thoughts on how marketing is perceived today compared to how it was perceived in the past, and highlights the importance of volunteering and giving back to those in need.

In this Part 1 discussion with Ryan Johnson, we talk about what it takes to be successful in marketing and highlight many of the challenges that marketers are facing today. Ryan shares how he is enabling our clients to be agents of change and goes into detail around how he conducts workshops and training sessions to help marketers meet their strategic objectives. Listen as we dive into some of the newly evolving trends in marketing and outline what you might expect to see in 2019.

In Part 2, Ryan and I will answer any questions you have. Email your questions or topic suggestions to [email protected]

Mike McKinnon, Sr. Director of Global Marketing Operations at LogRhythm, has been in marketing operations for almost 15 years and he knows how to manage a CRM and implement data management practices better than most. Listen as Mike talks about some of the new governance practices he’s working on implementing to ensure his database has the highest data quality possible. From enacting a data committee to restricting sales reps from creating opportunities, learn what the team at LogRhythm is doing to combat duplicate and dirty data. In this episode, we also highlight how to make your CRM system more efficient and share tips for evaluating and purchasing new technologies in the new year.

ConnectWise generates an incredible 20,000 inbound leads every month. As Sr. Marketing Systems Analyst, Rick Collins and his team are responsible for implementing and maintaining the lead scoring processes that prioritize those leads and improve the overall efficiency of their sales team. Listen as Rick and I share how and why to implement lead scoring and highlight which criteria should be in your lead scoring model. Rick also shares how he is bridging the gap between IT and marketing at ConnectWise and talks about his latest priorities aimed at enhancing and enriching data.

Victor Belfor, Senior VP of Channel Sales and Business Development, joins the show to talk about Conversica and the rise of AI-powered virtual assistants. Listen as Victor and I dive into all the use cases for conversational AI and how virtual assistants are being used to automate personalized outreach, schedule meetings, and take on the role of an SDR. Tune into this episode to learn more about conversational AI and whether or not you should be adding it into your sales and marketing outreach strategy.

Kevin Cassidy, Head of Global Marketing Automation at Sage, joins the show to talk about the success his team has seen from centralizing certain marketing operations functions while still being able to decentralize responsibilities for campaign operations due to his use of Campaign Launchpad(tm). Kevin goes into detail around the processes he’s put into place at Sage as well as the employee onboarding and training programs he’s implemented. In this episode, you’ll hear about Kevin’s passion for mentoring students, learn about the Mammies (Kevin’s internal program for spotlighting the success of his team), and you’ll even gain a better understanding of whether or not centralizing some of your marketing efforts is right for you.

Russell Artzt is the pioneering software engineer who co-founded CA Technologies, formerly Computer Associates, the first software company to generate $1 billion in sales.This past weekend, Charles Wang, his former business partner, friend, and co-founder of CA passed away. In this episode, I invited Russ to reflect on that relationship, the history behind CA Technologies, and why Russ is hard at work in the MarTech/SalesTech space now as Executive Chairman at RingLead, Inc.

Doug Ricketts, Marketing Operations and Chief of Staff, joins the show to talk about some of the marketing operations initiatives he’s focusing on at Ellie Mae. Since leaving Ellie Mae in 2007, a lot has changed and I ask Doug to share how the company has transformed over the last eleven years into the marketing operations powerhouse that it is today. Tune into this episode as we also cover how to set goals and define success for lower-funnel initiatives and talk about how to promote greater product adoption and decrease attrition. Doug also goes into detail about his role and responsibilities, how the marketing team at Ellie Mae is structured, and his process for evaluating and implementing new marketing technologies.

Creating a positive brand experience is critical for any company looking to be successful. Gene Foca, CMO of Getty Images, joins the show to talk about the power of putting the customer first. Listen as we dive deep into what it takes to deliver a remarkable customer experience and discuss who is responsible for building and maintaining those brand initiatives. Gene also shares some of the organizational changes he’s made at Getty since becoming the company’s CMO, we highlight a few companies that we think are getting brand experience right, and you’ll even learn what playing soccer and being a CMO have in common.